1. Field of the Invention
Flocked textiles and method of flocking the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has been the practice heretofore to apply to fabric, particularly fabric panels which formed one or more parts of an item of clothing, an example thereof being T-shirts, different types of structures to form an ornamental design. According to one method, the structure applied was a heat-plasticizable transfer usually of thermoplastic material in one or more colors and forming a predetermined desirable pattern. The transfer was effected under heat and pressure, the thermoplastic material flowing sufficiently to enter into interstices of the fabric without disturbing the configuration or colors of the different parts of the plastic design.
Another method employed to form a design on fabric was first to apply to the fabric an adhesive material in liquid form, usually colorless, and in a configuration of a desired final design. Thereafter, flock would be deposited on the thus-applied adhesive while the adhesive still was wet and sticky. The term "flock" as used in the foregoing sense covers short lengths of vegetable and animal fibers, which is within the conventional meaning of the term "flock." However, in connection with fabric designs, the term "flock" as above used also has embraced inert particles of hard material of which sand, ceramics and metal are examples. These materials are inert in the sense that they exhibit no physical reactions to the adhesive. The adhesive between such particles, and these include fabric particles as well as inert particles, has been due solely to physical attraction between the adhesive coating and the particles. As a result, the bond, i.e. the adhesion, between the particles and the adhesive coating has been a surface-to-surface bond of low magnitude. It has been found that when articles thus ornamented are cleaned, either by dry cleaning in a solvent system which does not attack the set adhesive coating or when they are machine- or hand-washed at a consumer's home, the bond is not sufficiently strong to retain a great number of particles in place; rather, a considerable number of particles separate from the article so that after cleaning, whether it be dry cleaning or water cleaning, the design on the article no longer looks new and fresh -- it becomes dull as a result of the ensuing sparsity of the particles.
The popularity of flocked ornamented articles therefore has been clouded by their short lives.